The impoundment area for waste materials associated with the Escondida Copper Mine in Chile is centered in this astronaut photograph from December 9, 2009.
The Bingham Canyon Mine is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, measuring over 4 kilometers wide and 1,200 meters deep. Mining first began in Bingham Canyon in the late nineteenth century, when shafts were sunk to remove gold, silver, and lead deposits that played out by the early 1900s. It would take the advent of open-pit mining in 1899 to turn the Bingham copper deposit into an economically favorable resource.
Located in the Sudirman Mountains of the Irian Jaya province of Indonesia, the Grasberg complex is one of the largest gold and copper mining operations in the world.
These images of the Saline Valley area, California, were acquired March 30, 2000, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER).
One of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world, the Cananea mine produced over 164,000 tonnes of copper in 2006. The active, 2-kilometer-diameter Colorada Pit is recognizable by the concentric steps, or benches, cut around its perimeter.
The rugged, mineral-rich Andes support some of the world’s biggest mines (gold, silver, copper, and more). This image looks down the bullseye of Peru’s Toquepala copper mine, a steep sided and stepped open-pit mine.